7 stupid beliefs even the smartest people have about money

Certified life and executive coach Megan Walls has noticed a recurring weak spot among the otherwise intelligent, capable professionals she works with: money.

"For some reason or another, these clients aren't as mindful or deliberate as they'd like to be. Some are business owners, lawyers, or in education," Walls tells Business Insider.

When these clients started asking Walls to help them master their finances, she got right down to their core beliefs about money.

"A belief is a thought you think over and over again," she says. "And then that belief gets buried in your subconscious, and causes an emotion - anything from contentment to fear - which then causes you to take action and produce some sort of result. That's the chain: emotion, action, result."

If these core beliefs are self-sabotaging, you can imagine how that chain progresses.

Here, Walls shares some of the more damaging financial thought patterns she's observed in her practice, among the most impressive professionals.